Big Lead Sports Bar

6/17/2008

THE PITTSBURGH SPORTS MEDIA POPULARITY CONTEST

Many of you used Mark Madden's recent dismissal from ESPN Radio 1250 to sound off on the state of the Pittsburgh sports media. And much of it was not pretty. At all. So I want to pose this question: who DO you like in the Pittsburgh sports media?

That question will hopefully be answered with The Mondesi's House 2008 Pittsburgh Sports Media Popularity Contest. I've done lots of research in digging up the 50 biggest names in the genre. I'm sure I missed somebody, so we can always add them later. But anyway, here's how this will work: I'm going to create an online poll for each of the participants. You'll then post your vote, much like Deadspin's media approval ratings: approve or disapprove. If you like him/her, you approve, if not, you disapprove. If you need more explanation, you probably should abstain from voting.

After a week of voting, we'll rank all 50 as determined by the highest percentage of "approvals" and declare a winner (and hopefully get an acceptance speech from the champion). In the unlikely event of a tie, we'll go US Open style and start a whole new competition for those involved.

We're including personalities from TV, radio, and newspapers for this, plus broadcasters from each of the local teams. We'll do 25 of these polls now and post the other 25 in a second post later this week.

Please have John Shumway on this list so I can disapprove him over and over again. Why does KDKA send him to the Tomlin Press Conference???? He always askes stupid questions like "What's a contusion?" and "Was the weather a factor?". I think Tomlin is even annoyed by him. Also, put Sally Wiggin on here for me to disapprove of. She is awful during those Steelers Primetime Specials. She doesn't know the difference between a jock strap and a chin strap.

Please add Rocco Demarro, Bucco postgame show host. He's got a very loyal following. I actually think he's the best person to replace Madden. Smart, funny, and extremely easy going. Unlike some of these know-nothing clowns, Rocco is polite, knowledgeable, and very entertaining.

What's up with the Hawthorne haters? He's a decent fella.

In addition to adding the Big Shumway, kindly do me a solid and put Rob Pratt/Ted Arnault on the list. Is it possible for a radio program to cause bleeding from the ears? Kill the Chat Pack!

fittingly, the thing I hate most about Pittsburgh sports media shows up in this poll- no love for Pitt. What about Paul zeise and kevin gorman, the p-g and trib fb beat writers? (for those of you under the Pitt media blackout in the burgh)

--To answer a previous question, there are two African-Americans on this list: Jon Burton of WTAE and John Harris of the Trib.

--As of 5 PM EST, there's been a total of 11,268 votes cast, the most being Mark Madden at 552 and the least being John Perrotto at 337.

Keep in mind - that is not an indicator of approval ratings, only the amount of votes cast for those individuals.

--There are a few photo glitches with some of the polls, which means the mugs of Bob Pompeani, Mike Prisuta and Dave Molinari are not showing up. I'm sure you're disappointed, but I'll try and fix that ASAP.

A few of the others had no photo available despite my best attempts, which means I'll have to do some serious digging to find a shot of Ed Bouchette.

Please add Jim Wexell and Dale Lolley, who cover the Steelers for Scout.com and various regional papers. Unless of course no one else has ever heard of them. I think Wexell at least is pretty well known (and well liked) in Steeler fan circles.

There are indeed just two African-Americans on the list.

But to the dope who complains of reverse racism on the Celtics -- well, what else would you expect from a city and a basketball franchise with such a proud history of refusing to add white guys just to keep the team whiter? Greg Kite starred for the Celtics because of talent and talent alone, and anyone who says different is insane or has an axe to grind.

Who the hell approved of Smizik, seriously. Everyone else on this list has some redeeming quality, even if they don't know anything about sports. Smizik is just an incompetent dumb ass that knows nothing. Come on!

Some of the people voting are morons. I mean who thinks for one second that Mike Prisuita is worth anything. While I do like him on the WDVE Morning show, his some of the things he says are really stupid. And whats with people not showing any love for Jeff Hathhorn and Bob Pompeani? Jeff does an excellent job at KDKA for not having anyone around him and Bob is by far the nicest guy in the Pittsburgh sports media. What a bunch of Idiots!

I forgot to add, there might actually be some hope for the Pittsburgh sports media. The incompetence that eminates from the Post Gazette and Channel 11 hasn't gone unnoticed by the masses. Nice work properly "disapproving" Smizik, Cook, Walsh, etc.

Good idea Monde. The people will speak and MAYBE someone in management will listen to who is really doing a good job. From the early returns, the exit polls say that Fox Sports is very popular. Just about everyone else ought to put a gun to their head and end their misery AND ours!